Warriors versus worriers: Using the mindset remote control

Warriors versus worriers: Using the mindset remote control

Submitted by:
Val Van Brocklin

Women and men think differently.

Yeah, I know, newsflash.

We think differently for at least two reasons. One is biological. It is scientific fact that our brains are biologically different. Another reason is sociological. Women and men share life experiences and perspectives that are uniquely female and male in our culture which shape how we think.

I think I read about the following point somewhere in a book about women’s leadership styles, but can’t for the life of me remember where. Permit me to credit the universal consciousness when I say that before men enter law enforcement, they are raised to be warriors, whereas women are often raised to be worriers.

Women seem much more likely to spend time and energy worrying and fretting over mistakes. Perhaps because of their practice time with TV remotes, men can also be pretty good with mindset remotes.

We women tend to hit rewind and play mistakes over and over. Men are more likely to switch their mindset channel until they find something they like. Men know that wasting valuable time and energy worrying depletes and distracts us from our mission and goals.

With that mindset remote in hand, men tend to do better staying fixed on one goal, like winning. This single-minded focus can be crucial to achieving the heroic.

On the other hand, women’s greater attention to detail and process, to means and not just ends, to the journey and not just the destination, means we’re more likely to ask, “Win what?”

And achieving heroic things is as much about quality as quantity.

I say “Vive la difference!” Because we’re different, as Aristotle said, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”